The Long Haul

By Amanda Stern

Book Overview

The Long Haul is about a frozen relationship between a college-aged alcoholic ("The Alcoholic") and his codependent girlfriend (the protagonist whose name is never spoken). Shifting between Upstate New York and New York City, the story follows the trajectory of their doomed six-year relationship. The Alcoholic is a college-town musician--a shiftless, disturbed yet oddly gentle and pathetic figure, he demands fealty and receives it from his girlfriend, who sees no choice but to stick with him for "the long haul." The protagonist, infatuated both by his irredeemably broken state off-stage and his Cobain-esque charisma on-stage, follows him everywhere. But she can barely apprehend the hollowness inside the two of them, fascinated instead by the trauma she encounters everywhere, an abandoned child, a pregnant junkie, a self-mutilating college friend...and in him. In an effort to find their way in the world, they drive through an ice-storm, kidnap an abandoned girl, break into a house, make and break the same promises, uncover the futile existence of lost causes, and forsake their own needs. As the redemption they found in the other turns to ruin, these two addicted youths find that extricating themselves from the other is not as easy as sacrifice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932360069
• ISBN13: 9781932360066
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Incredible, well written story of our age group

I have to say -- I got this book in the mail yesterday, and stayed up hours past when I really needed to go to bed in order to read it. I couldn't put it down. Amanda Stern's style is clean and crips, she isn't overly wordy, has a great vocab, and speaks of a time and era I know so well... being in your 20's in the 90's. She had he highs, but they really aren't covered in this incredible, but short, piece of work. I can't wait until the next book! For the record, this isn't really my genre of book. I'm more into the horror book featuring zombies or some historical work from world war ii... but Stern's work was INCREDIBLE.

Damn, girl. More, please!

I heard Stern read at my college in Nashville. She was stellar, a total rock star. Witty, energetic, enthusiastic and utterly charming, but I hadn't read her book yet. I have since read it and can only say, more! Please! She speaks to my generation (college aged, struggling) with a vibrance and freshness that is ferocious in its orginality of language and brutal in its honesty. She's something else. A must read. A must see her read. This girl has me totally whipped.

Like a sucker punch...but a good one.

Amanda Stern isn't pretty and that's exactly why I love this book. She doesn't cover her narrator's co-dependency, depression, anger, rage (all the fantastic range of emotions) with cheapened exposition, precious images and sing-song prose. Rather, her prose is sharp, short and powerful and the dialogue or sometimes the lack thereof between the unnamed narrator and the "Alcoholic" really tells it all. Engaging, I sometimes winced over several scenes (the heroin needle in the stomach, the attempted rape scene in another story), however, this is the true gift of the writer...the ability to shake me and propel me forward, wanting me to read more. Far from a precious book, this novel sustains, engages and sucks the reader in. Brava! And I cannot wait for the next novel.On a side note, why is this fantastic book paired with the horrible James Frey novel?

Not another hype job

What amazes me about this book is that it's gotten so little attention. In a way, I'm pleased, I'd like to keep Amanda Stern a secret for a while. Unlike the privileged and over hyped women writers in Ms. Stern's generation (you know who i'm referring to) Ms. Stern is the real thing. She has clearly written this novel from her heart. It is brave and courageous and she has guts. I too see the comparisons to Denis Johnson (this is the one article I've found on Stern floating around out there) but she is very much her own stylist and manages to imbue her novel with such substance and free-spirited language that she arguably stands in a class by herself. No comparisons necessary. She is a writer to watch and savor. Let's hope she has a lot more of this in her.

can't put it down!!

one of those books that keeps you up till 4am bleary eyed frantically turning pages while hoping that the end doesn't come anytime soon. anyone who's ever felt like they were in a totally dysfunctional relationship should read this book -- it'll keep you company, help put things in perspective, and leave you with images that will make you laugh and weep and fervently hope her next one comes out soon.